Jeff Recommended.

Vuthy Vichea is sixteen years old, Cambodian American. He loves hip hop and Dungeons and Dragons. He has thick-ass glasses. He is a weird kid in a place where weirdness can be fatal: Long Beach, California.

And since his best friend moved and his mother died, the only person he can talk to is a human skull he keeps hidden in a cookie jar.

Year Zero is a comedic drama about young Cambodian Americans — about reincarnation, reinvention, and ultimately, redemption.

Hell Yes

September 22nd, 2009Blog2 comments

So very, very good to be back home. To see the Pacific Ocean on the horizon, to return to the West that I love.

In the past couple of months I’ve been gone more than I’ve been home. This is unnatural for a homebody like myself. I like to have access to all my cool stuff, to be able to run my standard route, to sleep in my own bed. I get fatigued and homesick when I’m away from California for too long.

A few stories from the road:

As much as I love New York City, the place is a bad influence on me. It makes me rush around too quickly. It instills this sort of PUSH-PUSH-PUSH attitude in me. It’s stressful, and it makes me want to start smoking again.

My To-Do List When I Arrive at a Meeting in NYC:

1. Arrive early — preferably 15-20 minutes early so I can prepare.
2. Order a Diet Coke.
3. Figure out which train I need to catch to get to the next meeting right after this one ends.
4. Go over my notes: Who’s coming, what’s to be discussed. Make sure the pronunciations of names are correct. Recall the names of wives/girlfriends/kids and dogs.
5. If there’s time, go to the bathroom, utilize the facilities, and check my teeth.

It’s not like meetings in LA. In LA you’re driving in your own little car, so you have time to be by yourself and get ready. In NYC you’ve got to prep in the restaurant/cafe/waiting room/whatever. It’s a whole different set of rules.

But there is one oasis in the middle of Manhattan. A very special place for me, my colleagues, and the community:

New Dramatists lives in a hundred year old church. It’s my home in Manhattan, and is a sanctuary that’s always filled with really cool people and really cool spirits. Maybe the only place in New York City where I don’t feel at all rushed.

Chicago: What a journey we’ve had together. You and me and hot dogs, rewrites and rehearsals. The show is up and it’s on its feet, and crowds are coming to see it.

The opening was fun! There was food and live Cambodian music! The cast is having fun and the energy is up.

It’s an odd thing to write a play and see it go up. After opening night you’re pretty much redundant. You can go home, and the show goes on without you. In fact, once the thing opens there are no more adjustments you can make — there’s literally nothing left that you can do.

So you go home.

Got on the 3:20 flight from O’Hare to LAX. It was uneventful, though for some reason I had this seat with crazy legroom, a lumbar adjuster and the ability to recline all the way back (with no one behind me, just a wall!) like a La-Z-Boy. Not sure why that was.

As soon as we touched down I checked my email. There was a note from Rachel, our stalwart Year Zero stage manager (Tim: “She runs like an anime character”). She sent me the first review of the play, courtesy of the Chicago Tribune.

Welcome home, welcome home.

Woot

September 18th, 2009Blog2 comments

Previews, Man, Previews: So we’re in previews right now on Year Zero — this is the shakedown period where we’re making final directing/acting/writing adjustments, perfecting tech, getting comment cards from the audience. Last night’s preview was a packed house — it’s great to get a lot of feed back, and it’s a really good thing for the actors to see.

The thing about Chicago — and something I’ve been telling all my peeps in LA and NYC — is that people talk to you here. On the street they’ll talk to you about buses and the weather and dogs. They’re very friendly and nice, and like to be friendly and nice to you.

So anyway I’m sitting in one of our preview shows. We get to intermission, and this older fellow in the seat in front of me slowly turns around: “Are you the playwright?” he asks.

“Yes,” I said.

He studied me for a moment.

“So far so good,” he said.

Once again: You’re all right, Chicago.

We’re opening on Monday.

Also: Woot.

Oh, I Can Get You a Kazoo

September 15th, 2009Blog1 comment

I needed kazoos so I started calling places in New York City that might have them.

“Hi,” I said into the phone, “Do you have kazoos?”

“Do we have kazoos!” the voice on the other end said like the president of the NRA would say “Do we have guns!” or Elvira would say “Do we have boobs!”

“I’m on my way,” I said.

So I get up to the place — it’s on the 2nd floor in a building in midtown, right off of 7th Avenue. Nondescript. I pushed open the door: It was a magic shop. Not an ordinary magic shop — no: A really, really cool magic shop.

The nice man behind the counter showed me their selection of kazoos. They had four different kinds, which was the biggest selection of kazoos I had ever seen, anywhere. Another man behind the counter said, “Hey, do you like Houdini?”

“Sure I like Houdini,” I said.

“Well in that glass case is a bunch of real Houdini stuff.”

And sure enough there was a case full of manacles and chains and escape artist incarceration devices. Also show posters and such:

And nearby was a professional magic rabbit in a cage:

Note the tiny headshot of the little guy doing his thing.

So I picked out two kazoos and took them up to the man behind the counter. “Okay, I gotta ask,” he asked, “What do you need two kazoos for?”

“Here’s why,” I said, “I just got into New Dramatists. Tonight is our New Playwrights welcome, and actors are reading snippets from our work. So my cast needs a couple of kazoos.”

“Really?” the man behind the counter said, “Congratulations, that’s quite an achievement. By the way, I’m an actor. I should get you my card. I used to be Bozo the Clown.”

Cowboy Vs. Samurai Rides Again at Mu & The Guthrie

September 14th, 2009General0 comments

Cowboys. Ninjas. Together again on the same stage. Yes, our good friends at Mu Performing Arts are remounting Cowboy Versus Samurai at the Guthrie Theater.

Have you been inside the Guthrie? Seriously, it’s like a space ship in there. It’s pretty neat. If a giant rubber suit-style monster attacks Minneapolis, the Guthrie will transform into a giant robot and defeat it.

Anyway, there you have it: More Cowboy and more Samurai from our good friends in Minneapolis. For the full Twin Cities experience, smuggle a Jucy Lucy into the show and eat it during the intermission.

We Built It and They’re Here

September 12th, 2009Blog4 comments

Our first Year Zero preview was last night. The real costumes, the real lights were used. The real In-N-Out cups were used. The real skull was used.

Then real people showed up to watch it. That was the most exciting part — seeing real people react to this thing you’ve crafted together.

Putting together a show is like building an extremely complicated machine; you design it, revise it, focus and augment it. And finally you hit the big red START button and see if it runs.

And then it runs, and you’ve got people there paying to see it. You really hope they like it.

And when they like it, it’s one of the best feelings in the world.

(More Year Zero pics here.)

We had a great first preview. A great turnout, and a real diverse mix of people: Old, young, black, white. We got some nice responses, great laughs, and storywise, they were with us the entire time. This was an especially auspicious show because it was the very first show ever in Victory Gardens’ new 120 seat studio theater.

Now we’ve still got a ways to go — things are still coming together. The car (yes, there’s a car in the show!) used to squeak; they fixed it, but now it creaks. The speaker under the TV in the set that plays ambient noise got disconnected somehow and wasn’t working. Transitions are being tightened. I’ve made adjustments to some of the lines and the skull is dutifully memorizing them.

We’ve got eight more preview shows to go including tonight’s show. Then opening, then the actual run itself. But this thing’s actually coming together. It’s kind of crazy, kind of neat.

Also we had the Victory Gardens season preview today. They did snippets from all the shows that are going up this season.

I wanna say something real quick about Chad Diety: The entrance is indeed Elaborate, and it is highly Electrifying! They wrestled up there! There was a powerbomb! They built a freakin wrestling ring up on the stage!!!

Plus when the titular character (Chad Diety, played by our good friend Kamal), came out onstage he was tossing hundred dollar bills into the crowd. HUNDRED DOLLAR BILLS. This is how I wish to make entrances from now on.

Note to propmaster: Chad Diety’s bills should have Chad Diety on them instead of Ben Franklin.